First comes love...
by Jack
Summary: A story of the lifes of Kari and T.K done with the familiar schoolyard rhyme portraying the events in their lives.


First comes love...

By Jack

_Kari and T.K sitting in a tree..._

"Hey T.K! Hurry up you slow poke!" Called Kari from one of the higher branches of the tree she was climbing. She looked down towards her best friend who was struggling farther below her.

"I'm coming!" He called back. "Where did you learn to climb trees like this? I can hardly keep up with you."

"Practice." The eight year old said proudly. "There's a big tree in the park across from our apartment. I go climbing it any chance I get."

By that time T.K had caught up with Kari and was in the process of swinging himself on to the large branch that she was sitting on. He was out of breath and panted a little as he tried to catch it.

"Boy, following you is sure hard work Kari." He said between gasps.

She giggled at the boy. "Oh you're just too slow!" she teased.

"I am not! I was, uh, just taking my time. That's all." He returned.

"Sure you were."

"Yeah I was." He said triumphantly, then paused as he tried to figure out if he had won the discussion or if she had.

The two friends fell into a mutual silence as they gazed at the view around them. From their vantage point they could see for miles in all directions. It was dusk in the digital world and the sun was just finishing it daylong trek across the sky by sinking into the horizon in front of them. As it left the sky it set it ablaze with a dazzling light show. Reds, blues, oranges and pinks all swirled together in celebration at the ending of the day and coming night.

_K-I-S-S-I-N-G..._

As he watched the spectacle in front of him, T.K felt something stir inside of him. He couldn't describe it really, it didn't hurt and it didn't feel like anything he ever experienced in his short life up to this point. But what he did know was that it felt really nice. He sat pondering this new emotion for a while as the sun finished setting and not getting anywhere. Giving up, he decided to ask Kari if she had ever felt something like this before. As he turned and brought the girl beside him into his view, the warm little emotion flickering inside of him flared up causing him to gasp. As he watched the final rays of the setting sun hit the girl's chestnut hair causing it to glow with a light in of it's own and it played across her young features happily.

T.K was stunned. He had never realized that Kari was so…so… pretty. And the little flicker inside of him was now a small blaze heating him and warming his blood. He could feel his cheeks getting hot from the blush that was slowly creeping up his face. Could Kari be making him feel this way? Well, if she was, he didn't mind a bit. He decided to ask her if she was feeling the same when she spoke.

"T.K?" She asked.

"Yeah Kari?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl before?"

The question caught him off guard, "Yeah I've kissed my mom and my grandma. They're girls."

"No silly. I mean someone that's not in your family." She laughed.

"No way! Girls are yucky!" He exclaimed then instantly regretted his words as he saw Kari's face fall in disappointment. "But you're not a girl Kari. You're my best friend!" he quickly amended.

She looked towards him and saw the grin on his young face and her mood brightened quickly. "Then it would be ok if you kissed me then?" she asked.

He mulled it over for a couple of seconds, with Kari watching patiently. "I guess so." He said. "But how do we do it?"

"Well, it's easy." She said as she slid along the branch closer to him. "We both put our faces close together, like this." She moved her head so that she was eye to eye with him and almost touching nose to nose. "Then we close our eyes. And we touch lips…" She said as they brought their faces together and their lips connected.

As soon as they touched the little flame burning inside of T.K exploded, sending warmth all though out his body starting from his lips and moving everywhere. He could feel the blush on his cheeks deepen and grow hotter. He opened his eyes to see if Kari had seen the blush only to stare right into her crimson ones. They stayed like this for a few more seconds before they reluctantly parted.

"Wow." Said T.K, breaking the silence between the two. "Maybe girls aren't that bad after all."

"Yeah." She said as she tried to cover her own blush. "Neither are boys."

Then, breaking the bond of silence that had once again surrounded the two, a pair of voices sounded from below calling their names.

"T.K!" "Kari!"

"Up here Matt!" T.K called from his perch to his older brother down below.

"Is Kari up there?" Came a second voice.

"Yeah I'm up here too Tai!" She called down.

"Well it's getting dark and we're about to set up camp. You'd better come down." Came Matt's voice.

"Alright! We'll be right down!" Yelled Kari as she started the decent to the ground with T.K right behind her.

"Hey Kari?" T.K asked as he moved from branch to branch.

"Yeah?"

"Can we do that kissing thing again sometime?" he asked with a tinge of hope in his voice.

"Sure," She said as she smiled at him warmly. "I'd like that."

_First comes love..._

Kari and T.K were hurrying through the school gym, with a bag full of medical supplies, on their way back to a wounded, and 'hallucinating' Davis when T.K stopped.

"Kari?"

She turned around at the call. "What is it T.K?"

She noticed that the boy in front of her not his usual self. An expression that was troubled and confused instead replaced the normally smiling face of her best friend but his eyes still held the hope that he seemed to always have. But he seemed to want to say something but was having trouble saying it.

"I, uh, I mean, well, can I talk to you about something?" he said with a shaky voice.

"Sure T.K, what is it?" she said as she sat down on one of the bleachers lining this side of the gym and motioned for him to sit beside her.

"Uh Kari?" he began, "we've been best friends for a long time right?"

"Yup, ever since we were eight."

"And nothing would change that, right?"

"T.K, we're best friends! Nothing could ever change that." Said Kari as she smiled one of those sweet smiles that could make his heart melt in an instant.

"Well, what if I told you that I was in love with someone that I have a very good friendship like ours with but I'm afraid to tell her because I don't want to wreck it." He said as he dropped his vision and looked at shoes.

"Well, you should tell her. And don't worry about the friendship, if it's as strong as ours is then even if she doesn't share those same feelings, she would still want to be friends." She said with a little disappointment showing in her voice.

_T.K loves someone else?_ She sighed. _I guess I was just fooling myself into thinking he loved me._

"Thanks Kari. I really needed that advice." He said as he stood up. If he noticed the girl's disappointment he hid it well.

Getting up too, Kari started the walk back to Davis. She had only got three steps when T.K's voice stopped her again.

"Hey Kari, there's something else I need to tell you."

Kari turned to face her friend once again and was met with a broad grin plastered across his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

 "Well, I just got this good advice from a great friend of mine and I decided to follow it."

Kari was confused. Did he talk to someone else before her? But before she could ask, he said the most important thing she had ever heard.

"Kari? I love you. I felt it since the day I met you and I hope to feel it for a long time after."

Kari was speechless. Her mouth moved but no words came to her lips. T.K really did love her!

"Oh T.K!" She cried a she ran into his arms and buried her face into his shoulder.

"So, does this mean you love me too?" he asked as he smiled at the girl in his arms.

"Of course it does silly!" She said as she returned his smile, looking into those deep blue eyes of his.

They both looked at each other. They stood in the silence that seemed to envelop the entire gymnasium. All they could see was each other's eyes. They were like deep pools of blue and crimson. Their faces inched closer and closer until only a hairs breadth separated their lips. Then with a roar of passion, they connected. 

Neither of them had felt anything like this. It was like tiny needles of electricity were flowing through every part of their bodies, starting form their mouths and spreading everywhere. The entire world seemed to melt away until all that existed were these two lovers in each other's arms sharing their first kiss. Absolutely nothing could have separated these two no matter what was going on outside of the envelope of bliss that surrounded the two.

_Then comes marriage..._

T.K's nerves were on edge and his stomach felt like it had the world's entire population of butterflies fluttering around in there as he paced the small confines of the Kamaya's bathroom.

"Come on T.K" he muttered to himself. "You've been through worse. You've helped save two worlds at least twice. This should be a walk in the park compared to that."

It was Kari's eighteenth birthday and the most important day of the year for her. Though it would be soon quickly out shadowed by the most important day of her life; that is unless T.K got up the courage to go out there and do what he was planning to do.

Suddenly there was a knock on the bathroom door and Tai's muffled voice came through. "Hey T.K, you ok in there?"

"Yeah Tai, I'm ok" He called back.

"Well you'd better get out here. Kari's already finished opening her other gifts and she's waiting for yours."

T.K felt the lump in his throat tighten and the convention of butterflies turn on the music and start a conga line. _Well here goes nothing._ He thought as he opened the door and stepped out into the crowd of waiting people. 

T.K slowly made his way towards Kari with the tension of the moment clearly showing on he face. Kari picked up on it right away and knew something was the matter.

"T.K, what's wrong?" She asked.

T.K ignored the question and started the speech that he had gone over countless times. "Kari? As you know, we've been together for four years now and in love for even longer. And I have to say that every moment that I'm with you is the happiest one of my life. So with that said, I would like to give you your present." T.K then fell to one knee and the room went completely silent except for Kari's startled gasp.

"Would you, Kari Kamiya, do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

_Then comes..._

It was a beautiful morning, the sky was a pure blue, and puffs of soft cottony clouds floated lazily by as the birds in the trees above sang the day's praises. T.K had rested himself against the trunk of one of those mighty trees. He lay there with his hands behind his head just staring up into nothing as the world went by slowly around him.

Though the moment was soon interrupted by a friendly loving voice. "Hello beautiful." It said.

Twisting his head he brought his view around to find the smiling face of his wife of nearly four years looking back at him. "Hello to you too." He smiled back as she took a seat next to him.

"So what are you doing?" Kari asked as she followed his gaze.

"Oh nothing really, just laying here and thinking."

"Really? About what?"

"About our life together and how it all started."

"Yeah, quite some interesting times we've had together and with our friends."

"Our first kiss in the tree in the Digital World." Said T.K as he slipped into the memory.

"The time we confessed our love for each other." She added.

"And my proposing to you on your birthday." He laughed. "You know, in all my life that was the hardest thing I ever had to do."

"But it was the most rewarding thing of both our lives too."

"Yeah. And you know what?"

"What?"

"Our life fits perfectly with that old rhyme."

"What rhyme?" Asked Kari.

T.K propped himself up on one elbow to look into his love's eyes. "You know the one. 'T.K and Kari sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…'"

Kari thought for a moment. "You're right, I guess it does." She smiled.

T.K laughed. "Well almost completely. There is the part of the baby in the baby carriage."

Kari only smiled at her husband and said. "No… That part's true too." Then she got up and quickly ran down the hill giggling.

T.K just stared after his fleeing wife in confusion until his eyes went wide with surprise.

"WHAT?" He exclaimed.

***

~Jack

I hope you enjoyed this little romance of mine. Review if you like it or you have some suggestions!


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